The Killing Truth
by Sadie555
Summary: Preseason 5. See how the crimianl feels. Sara has a child to care for named Emily. Their car crashes. Some GS. Please read and review.
1. Chapter 1

Written March 7th, 2004

I dedicate this to my friend, Victoria, who always wanted to hear the next part of the story, and to my mentor Catherine otherwise known as CAT. Thanks for all your support, Victoria, and CAT, thanks for the ideas, and the wonderful times we've had together. Hope you enjoy this.

The Killing Truth

The newest member of the night shift of the Las Vegas crime lab stood near the window of her office, watching the beautiful sunrise. She had put in a long night's work, but as always, was planning to stay for overtime. The beautiful light filled half of the sky, sending long rays into the city. She sighed at the awe of the site.

"Hey, thanks for helping me with the case, you really pulled through for me on this one." A voice came from behind her. Slightly startled, she gave a small jump and looked around. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you", Catherine said with a small chuckle. "You, uh, wanna go out for breakfast? My treat."

Sara shook her head, "nah, thanks anyway. I think I'm gonna try to finnish that list of office supplies I need."

"You're gonna try to keep working on the case, aren't you," Catherine guessed. Sara gave her half of a smile, and looked back to catch the end of the sunrise show. Catherine came over beside her.

"It's beautiful, isn't it," Sara said. Catherine nodded.

"Well, I have to get home to Lindsay. You know, send her off to school."

"See ya." Sara replied, and soon she was alone again. The sun had finally risen fully, and so now she decided to get back to work on the case. She sat back down at her desk, as Grissom came into her office this time.

"Sara, it's a beautiful day out there. It's not that hot today. It has been a really nice summer. Anyway, you should get out there." Oh no, Sara thought. Not another lecture. "You aren't spending overtime today, are you?" She was trying to figure out how to respond to this, when her cell phone rang. She took it out of its pocket from her side and opened up the phone to its full length before putting it to her ear.

"Sidle" She answered into the phone. She talked for a few seconds to the person on the other line, thanking God for the answer to Grissom's question. When she was finished talking, she folded up her phone and put it back into the pocket.

"Apparently, I've been assigned another case. It's urgent. Grissom, could you take over mine?" Grissom sighed.

"You know I really shouldn't let you take this, but ok."

"Thanks" she replied, and with that, she was off to her next case.


	2. Chapter 2

"Sara Sidle?" asked the officer at the scene.

"That's me" she replied.

"Hi. There's been a report that a friend of yours, Hank? He has been murdered. Unfortunately, he was also babysitting a child at the time. She was supposed to be staying here for a week. She's over there in the Tahoe. Her name is Emily. We need you just to look after her until we can find a new place for her to go. Right now, everyone is focused on the crime, and I believe that's the way it should be. If you want, take matters into your own hands and find this child a new place to go now, or do what you think is best." She nodded, as she looked at the frightened child sitting alone in the car.

"Ok." She replied. She walked over to the car. "Hi," she said to the child. "Are you Emily?" The girl nodded. She was only about 9 years old. But that was Lindsay's age. She figured she could handle her. "I'm Sara." She told her. "I'm going to stay with you until we can find you a new place to stay until your parents get back. Ok?" The girl nodded again. Sara held out her hand, and Emily took it. She led Emily to her own car, and opened the back door for her to climb in. When she was in, she closed the door, and got settled in the driver's seat.

"Where am I going?" Emily asked.

"Where would you like to go?" The girl shrugged. "Let's go to my place." Sara said.

About 15 minutes later, they arrived in Sara's parking spot of her apartment complex. They both got out and Sara took her hand again, leading her to her own home. "You make yourself comfortable", she said, "I need to make a phone call. Emily nodded, and sat on the couch.

"Can I watch TV?" she asked.

This made Sara laugh. "Sure. Here's the remote. This one is the power button, these are the channels, and this is for the volume. Let me know if you need any help, though I'm sure you probably won't, as this is your kind of specialty!"

Emily laughed too, for the first time since the murder. She set the TV to nickelodeon, and Sara made her call to the child services. Soon, she hung up.

"Can I get you anything? Something to drink? Something to eat?" Emily shook her head.

"I'm ok."

"Ok, then I'll be down the hall and to the left if you need me."

"Ok"

Sara made her way to the room, and lay down in her bed. Some overtime, she thought with a chuckle. She woke up to something pulling on her arm. Sara opened her eyes to see a childish face staring back up at her. Since when did I marry Grissom? She thought to herself, but soon remembering Emily from the murder. She got up at once when she remembered, and noticed it was almost noon.

"What's wrong?"

"Sara, I'm hungry. Can I have some lunch?" Lunch! She had completely forgotten!

"Sure." She said with a sleepy smile and a yawn in-between. She got up and went to the kitchen. "What do you normally eat?"

"Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, of coarse! My favorite!" She smiled.

Simple enough, Sara thought to herself. "Ok." She got out the two slices of bread, the jelly, the peanut butter, and a spoon and a knife. Soon it was made, and she got out a glass and filled it with water. "Here, you can go eat this in front of the TV if you want" she told her.

"Cool!" Emily shouted with excitement.

In no time at all, Sara was back into her bed. Then, waking up to yet another tug on her arm. It was nearly three o-clock.

"Can I have a snack?"

With another yawn, Sara nodded, and went to the kitchen, with the girl following her close behind. "What would you like? I some pretzels, popcorn, chips, and girl scout cookies, along with carrots, grapes, apples, oranges, and bananas." Emily took it all in before making a decision.

"Wow, you have so much to choose from! Um, I think I'll take, no. Maybe I'll have, I don't know. I'll take some girl scout cookies I guess." Sara went over to her cabinet, and took down the Girl Scout cookies, and went to get a glass of water when the 9-year-old spoke up, "Can I have some milk?"

"Sure," She replied as she opened up the refrigerator door and grabbed the carton of milk on the top shelf. She opened it and poured some into a glass for the child before putting it back and closing the door.

"Thanks," she said, heading back over to the TV.

"Mm-hmm," Sara replied. She went back to the comfort of her bed once more. The next time she woke up, it wasn't to anything pulling on her, but a ringing sound. The telephone. "Hello?" she said in a sleepy voice.

"Sara Sidle?"

"That's' me"

"This is the child services, you called us this morning?"

"Yes, I have a nine-year old girl with be who was being looked after for a week when the caretaker was murdered. Would you be able to take her?"

"No problem. Just bring her over to 552 Berkland Road. It's the big building on the left, you can't miss it. I'm Saundra Hutchinson, look for me when you walk in."

"Ok, thanks." With that, Sara hung up and went out to get Emily. "Emily? I'm going to bring you somewhere now ok?"

"Where?"

"I'm bringing you to these people who can care for you even better than I can, because I have to get back to my work. Let's go."

Soon, they were in the car, driving along towards the child services'. They were both equally silent, and thinking. Who knew what was going on in Emily's mind, but for Sara, all she could think about was what happened to Hank. He had cheated on her once before, but that didn't stop her caring for him. Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden jolt to the car. One minute the CSI was driving on the road, the next she was tumbling down an embankment. She heard Emily scream with terror, and she thought she heard herself scream, but she couldn't tell. Over and over, they turned and rolled. The world seemed to be going off its axis and into the deep space, out of control. Then, as suddenly as it had started, they jolted to a stop, now with the car's right side leaning into the grass. Sara could feel herself slipping to the right, and so she unbuckled her seatbelt, and let her self down slowly into the other seat beside her, and then buckling up again, in case the car began to tumble once more. She looked at Emily. Emily had been knocked out, and was leaning almost lifelessly on the back right door.

"Emily?" Sara tried to say, noticing her voice was hoarse, and suddenly all the pain came to her. Her head throbbed; her legs pierced her with an almost unbearable pain, while her hands felt as though they had been completely torn off from the limbs of her body. Carefully, she reached to her cell phone, trying to ignore the pain that followed. Opening the phone to its full length, she pressed the buttons 9-1-1, and said, "We need help. We've been in an accident off of route 170, help, there's a child that's unconscious." Before she passed out herself.


	3. Chapter 3

"Sara? Sara?" Something was once more tugging on her arm.

"Not now, Emily." She said, trying to get back to sleep. There was no way she'd get more rest now though, as the pain rushed back to remind her of the accident they had been in. Wearily, she opened her eyes. She was in the hospital, resting underneath the white sheets of the sterile bed.

"Sara?" It was the nurse. "How are you feeling?"

The Brunette made a face at this comment, but it quickly vanished and turned into a grimace. "Not good." She replied.

"Do you remember what happened?"

"A car accident." She replied. "Where's Emily?"

"The little girl?" Sara nodded one quick nod, trying to avoid causing any more pain. "She is in surgery. Two broken ribs, and a shattered arm."

"So she will live?"

"Most likely." The nurse smiled. "Oh, um, you have some visitors, would you like to see them? Or do you need your rest?"

"I'd like to see them" Sara replied. Catherine and Grissom were the first to walk in. Sara smiled a small smile. "Hey" she greeted quietly.

"Hey." Catherine replied.

"Hi, Sara" Grissom followed. "How are you feeling?" This time, Sara held back her facial expressions.

"Eh, I'm getting there. Hey, about that case, Catherine," Catherine held up a hand, ordering her to stop.

"Don't worry about it. Nicky's gonna help me. You just get some rest."

"Grissom, don't let anyone else take that Hank murder case. I want to solve it myself, as soon as I get well."

"Sara, I can't do that. If we wait the killer has more time to get away, and clean up his crime, you know that."

"Well, who's taking it, then?"

Grissom sighed. "Ecklie." Sara groaned. "I'll see if he'll be willing to let you in on the progress though. Just don't get your hopes up."

"What hopes?" Sara asked him. Grissom gave a slight chuckle.

"Now that's a good question," Catherine added. "By the way, YOUR case is in GOOD hands"

"My case?" Sara asked her, puzzled.

"Didn't anyone tell you? It was a hit-and-run. Warrick- the good hands- is taking care of it. He's a great CSI, Sara. He'll find out who did this to you two."

"I just hope Emily will be alright. She had quite a scare."

"Don't worry, she'll be fine. The nurse said she'd be back to her old, childish self within seconds, and she'd be able to leave the hospital in a month or so."

"A month?" She was shocked. "Poor thing. What will her parents say?" She wondered aloud.

"Don't you worry about a thing but getting better." Grissom told her.

"Hey, where's the rest of the gang?"

"They're working. Greg and Nick said they'd be able to see you either later on tonight or tomorrow, and then Warrick and Brass said they'd see you as soon as they could, which in their case may be next year!" Catherine joked.

Sara laughed, but soon regretted it. She gasped at the pain. Catherine and Grissom gave a sympathetic gremmies.

"You better get some rest." Grissom told her. "That's an order!" This time, Sara smiled, knowing that she'd die from another wave of pain if she laughed again.

"Hey, do you know what the heck is causing this pain? Anything on my chart?"

"Let's see." Catherine said, reaching for the board hanging from the end of her bed. "It says here you were found with a severe concussion, a leg broken in about seven places, and shards of glass covering your hands."

"Ohh!" Sara said, now understanding the pain she felt. "Does it say anything about getting out of here anytime soon?"

"Nope, sorry" Catherine replied. "Now get some rest, you want to be alive for Greg and Nick tomorrow, don't you?"

"Gnight" Sara said, as Grissom and Catherine walked out of the room and flipped the light switch. Sara put her head back on her pillow, and tried to let any kind of 'Happy Thoughts' come to her mind, but all she could see was the tumbling and the terror. After a long while, she finally got to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

The next time she opened her eyes, Nick and Greg were waiting to greet her. "Look's like the victim's awake." Nick joked. It felt weird to her to be a victim, as she was usually the one trying to nail the suspect herself.

"Hey guys." Sara responded to their greeting with gratitude towards their presence. "How's work?"

"Not bad. Though, I gotta say, your crime's evidence is keeping me way too busy." Greg told her, in his usual Greg humor.

"I thought you liked to help." Sara said, smart talking him back. Greg held his hands up in surrender.

"But it's not a problem." He said quickly. Sara chuckled, then wincing at the pain again. "Hey, I thought the people HERE would care to help enough and at least give you some pain killer."

"It's no problem, Greg. It's gotta get worse before it gets better, I just wish it'd get better quicker, so I'd get out of this place!"

"You aren't gonna get better overnight, you know." Nick told her.

"Hey, I can wish, hope, dream, and pray, can't I?"

Nick nodded. "Well, then we'll do it with you."

Sara smiled at this comment. She knew she could always count on her friends to see her through the hard times. Suddenly, the tune of Ode to Joy was heard from inside a white plastic bag next to her bed.

"Oh! That must be my cell phone! I thought I turned it off!" Sara said, wondering how she'd get it.

Greg read her mind. "I got it." He walked over to the bag, and searched through it to find the small mobile phone singing it's ring tone song. "You wanna answer it? Or should I turn it off?"

Sara nodded quickly. "Lemmie see who it is." She only had one problem, she couldn't move without pain following through. "Hey Greg," she said quickly, almost frantic so that she wouldn't actually miss the call, "could you do me a quick, big, favor, and hold that thing up to my ear?"

Greg laughed. "So the time finally comes when you can't bare to live without me." He hurried over to her.

"Greg, I would make a face at that comment, but it would hurt too much." She told him honestly. The phone was now by her ear. "Sidle." She said into the receiver.

"Are you feeling better now?" a voice asked from the other end. "Good." It said without a reply. Sara knew at once who was speaking to her.

"Hey, Catherine! How'd you know my phone still worked?"

"Don't you think that room is boring enough to notice anything? My complete attention wasn't all on you, but also on the room you were staying in. Didn't you notice me looking through that bag?" Sara smiled. "So…are you feeling better?"

"Catherine!" She sighed. "You are about as eager for me to get better as I am myself!"

"Ok, ok, I'll let you get some rest. I'll try to see you tonight, alright?"

"Ok," and with that, Sara nodded to Greg that she was done. Greg took the phone and folded it back up.

"Do you want me to turn it off now?" Sara nodded once more. Greg then turned it off and put it back into the bag to stay until Sara felt better.

"Well, we have to get going." Nick said, looking at Greg to make sure that he had to go too.

With a nod, Greg added, "Hope to see you again soon."

Sara smiled once more. "Thanks guys. See ya." The two men walked out of the room, leaving Sara alone, and letting her drift back to sleep again, getting used to the pain that stayed with her.


	5. Chapter 5

Sara's next surprise was Catherine and Lindsay. Lindsay was the same age as Emily, and was such a cheerful child. She ran over to Sara, without any understanding of the pain she was in. Sara ignored the pain to show how strong she was to Lindsay as she embraced a hug with the child. Catherine just stood in the doorway. She smiled, proud that her daughter cared so much about others, yet had an apologetic look for Sara, knowing Lindsay had most likely caused her some pain with her physical movements.

"Hey Lindsay" Sara said to the 9-year old who stood by her bed.

"I brought you something!" Lindsay smiled with excitement. She handed her a small card and a box wrapped in forest green wrapping paper and a gold ribbon settled messily on top. Typical child-like wrapping. But Lindsay had done this out of the kindness of her heart, so Sara happily accepted the beautiful gift. She sat, trying to decide which to open first. "Open the card!" Lindsay squealed in anticipation. Sara forced herself to laugh, knowing that her body was going to punish her with yet another wave of pain. But then she opened it, and found a card with a mama bird on the front holding out it's wing for a baby bird to grab and leading it back to it's nest.

She looked inside, and read "When you fall out of the nest, it's good to have one's who will take care of you until you find your way back. Get well soon." Sara smiled at Lindsay.

"Open the box!" Lindsay almost shouted.

"Shh, Lindsay, don't be too loud. We're in a hospital, remember?" Catherine told her daughter quietly. The child sighed, but obeyed her mother's command. Sara opened her box, and found cupcakes. They were chocolate, decorated with vanilla icing, and candy hearts and flowers were topping them.

"Lindsay! I love them," Sara told her. She truly did love them too. They were beautiful. "Are they good?"

Lindsay smiled. "Try one!" The patient lifted up a cupcake, carefully pulled back some of the pink wrapping. Then she stopped. She handed one to Lindsay.

"You try it with me." Sara told her. The child's smile grew wider.

"Ok!" She took the cupcake and peeled off her own paper. Then, they counted to three, and each took a big bite at the same time.

"Delicious!" Sara said, with her mouth full. Then she realized how impolite she had been, and covered her mouth with her the tips of her fingers, ignoring more of the pain. To hide this embarrassment of rudeness, she pretended there was some icing on her mouth, and "whipped the icing off" to only then "lick it off her fingers".

"So you like them?" Lindsay asked her after she swallowed, mostly knowing the answer, but wanting more recognition for her hard work.

Sara swallowed this time, before looking at her, smiling, and saying "I love them!" Then she wondered aloud, "What time is it?"

Catherine smiled. "Late" she replied. "So late, that it is in fact past this little one's bedtime. She only got to come because she went through the time and effort to make you something; I had to let her give it to you herself. But then we made a deal that as soon as we were done; she had to go to bed. So we have to get going. Come on Lindsay" She motioned her daughter to follow.

"Aw mom, can't I stay just a little bit longer?" Lindsay whined as she was finishing her cupcake.

Catherine shook her head. "No, it's a school night, hon., you know that. It's late, and I don't want to hear you telling me how tired you are tomorrow. Come on." The little girl sighed, but followed.

Then she turned around to say, "Bye Sara, I hope you feel better soon."

Sara smiled. "Bye sweetie. Thank you." She fell asleep soon again, this time dreaming of falling out of a tree, and all of her friends catching her and taking her back up to where she fell. This was the first time she had dreamed since the accident. But then she dreamed that Lindsay fell out of the tree, and she was worried about what Catherine would say. When she got down to see if Lindsay was all right, she found Lindsay dancing like a perfect ballerina in a beautiful leotard, while the girl that fell turned out to be Emily.

The CSI woke up in a cold sweat. She realized now, just how worried she was about the girl she had cared for. It was hard to sleep after this bizarre dream, but she knew she had to get some rest in order to get well. So with her mind focused on the child of the hit-and-run, she took forever to make her way back to dreamland, but she finally made it.


	6. Chapter 6

"Hey Sara." A quiet voice said, taking out of her sleep easily, as she wasn't sleeping very deeply. The brunette opened her weary eyes to finally focus on a tall, dark man in front of her.

"Warrick" she said quietly, her voice hoarse, and half telling herself who it was, half greeting him. "Hey, how's it going?"

"I'm not too bad, but how are you?" he asked gently, walking over to the side of her bed. He was the first visitor to notice a chair in the room, most likely besides Catherine. He took hold of it in his hand and put the back of it up to her bed, to sit on it backwards.

Sara sat up. The pain was finally beginning to subside, and she was able to move a lot more now, without having a wave of pain pierce her body as it used to. "I'm getting better" Sara told him.

"Alright!" Warrick said.

"So how's the case coming along?"

Warrick gave her a face that told her that he hadn't gotten too far. He shook his head with shame. "I'm trying Sara, I really am. Don't worry. I'll find out who did this to you."

For the first time, Sara felt anger. No one was thinking about the reason why she was in that car in the first place. "It wasn't just me. I want you to do it for Emily too."

Warrick could sense her anger, and held back. "Ok." He surrendered calmly.

"So how far have you really gotten?" she asked him.

"All I have so far, is that the suspect drove a red Toyota pick-up, and you were probably its target. It's definitely a hit-and-run, Sara. That's where the evidence is pointing, and you know how Grissom is about the evidence." Sara nodded. "We also found a tire tread, and it led us to three different trucks. So now I just have to find the one with the scratches on it, and the one with the burned out tires, and we may have a suspect to go with."

"No blood, fingerprints, shoeprints, anything?"

Warrick shook his head. "Nah, nothing."

Sara nodded. "Ok, well, sorry, but it seems like the more I sleep, the better I feel. So I gotta get some more shut-eye."

Warrick stood up, nodding, and put the chair back in its original place. "Ok, I hope you feel better soon."

Sara laughed. It was a miracle as no pain went through. "I'm healing so fast, I'll be outta here in no time. You're gonna have to run to keep up with me soon!"

Warrick gave a smirk. "Well, see yaw."

"Bye Warrick."


	7. Chapter 7

Sara would be leaving the hospital very soon. Her leg was, for the most part, well enough to use crutches, and her concussion was better, as for her hands, and she would have to come back in a few weeks to get the stitches out. At the moment, the CSI sat upright in her bed, reading a book about crime. She was almost free of pain. Captain Brass chose this time to come to visit her.

"Hey! Looks like you're doin much better, from what I've heard." He said greeting her.

"Hi." She said back, sorry that she would have to stop reading. These days were hard for her because she wasn't working. "What's up?"

"Not much. A few cases here and there of coarse, but other than that, it's pretty boring around the lab since you've been out."

Sara smiled at him. He usually was harsh with smart talk to all who deserved it, but rarely, every once in a while; you would see his sweet side.

"What'ya got there?" The captain asked, pointing towards the book Sara held in her hands.

"Oh, just, you know, stuff about crime."

Brass nodded. "It's hard isn't it? Not being able to work."

This made her think. Did he understand? Or was he just saying that from what he had seen in the past? All she said was "Yeah, kinda. I miss working with you guys."

Brass smiled. She knew what he had really been asking her, but she was relived that she had avoided his question.

"Any more updates on cases?" Sara asked him, eager to get involved with work as soon as possible.

"I'll let the others tell you about that." He gave her a small smile, and then said. "Well, hey, I hope you get out of here soon. We really need you at the lab."

"Believe me, I hope so too!" She admitted. "But I should be getting out of here soon. I feel almost no pain now a-days."

"Good. That's good." Brass nodded. "Alright, well, I still have a lot of work to do."

"Ok, bye." Sara said.

"Good-bye, Sara." With that, he left Sara to read her book. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Sara couldn't decide, but as soon as she went back to reading her book, a nurse interrupted her again.

"Sara? You'll be out of here by tomorrow. We want to make sure that everything has healed enough for you to leave."

"Thanks" she replied.


	8. Chapter 8

Two weeks later, on August seventeenth, Sara was in the CSI lounge with the rest of her crew. They had bought a gift, tied balloons, taped crape paper to a chair, and decorated a vanilla cake with vanilla icing and forty-eight candles. A sign that read Happy Birthday in fancy blue letters against a white background was hanging in the doorway.

"Are you sure you told him?" Catherine asked Sara, worried that he may not come.

"Yes" Sara replied for the umpteenth time. Sara felt so much better. Though her hands were still a little messed up, she was able to use crutches to keep herself standing up on her healing leg. The criminalist enjoyed being out of her bed from the hospital, even though her underarms hurt from using the crutches so much. But it was worth it to her. Though her friends had told her that she _did_ have the option to sit down, she always refused, saying how much she was just thankful that she still had the option to stand. She knew she could've been much worse from the accident, and she was very happy that she had escaped with such minor injuries. Well, to her they were minor, but the rest of the night shift still wanted her to take care of herself.

"Hey, I think he's coming." Nick told them quietly.

Everyone waited in anticipation for their friend to come into the room. In a few seconds, Grissom walked in.

"Surprise!" his friends greeted. Grissom looked around. No one could tell what he was thinking, but they were all hoping the same thing. They all hoped he didn't mind surprises! But soon their worries faded as Grissom smiled at the work they had done for him. He saw the decorated chair, and took his seat.

Then, he noticed the cake with all the candles placed into it. With half a smirk, half a groan, he said, "Do I really have to be reminded of my age?"

Everyone laughed, as Captain Brass, Greg, and Warrick lighted the candles. When each of the wax sticks had it's own orange flame settled flickering on the top, they all said happy birthday as Grissom blew out his birthday candles in one, gigantic breath. They clapped for him as the flames turned into ghosts of smoke.

"And from whom did this gift come from?" He asked afterwards, looking at the flat present sitting in front of him.

"That's a gift from all of us." Said Greg. Grissom nodded, picking it up. It was wrapped in white paper, with a pattern of the word 'Happy Birthday' printed in gold all over it. Not only that, it had a gold stick-on bow to match its outfit. Carefully, he took this bow off, and unstuck the tape holding the wrapping on the gift. He took out an envelope, and opened it.

"A certificate for five years of Entomology Catalogue! Wow!" He was delighted. "You didn't have to…" Grissom began, but Brass stopped him.

"Grissom, just take it. You're our friend, we wanted to give this to you." Grissom smiled.

"Thank you. Thank you all." He told them, though he didn't really express his feelings, they all knew he was very happy.


	9. Chapter 9

The next shift, Sara sat at her desk for the first time in such a while. It was the time between the end of the day shift, and the beginning of the night shift. She didn't have a new case yet, but was sure to be getting one soon. Warrick came into the room, files in his right hand. He placed them on her desk, and took a seat in front of her. Sara looked at Warrick, and then opened the folder containing the files.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Your case." Warrick replied.

"How's it coming?"

"We found the truck used in the hit-and-run. The truck belongs to a man-Darren Shelby-and guess who's a close friend?" Sara waited for his answer, deciding she'd get the answer faster if she didn't guess.

"Hank."

Sara was shocked "Did he murder Hank?"

Warrick shook his head. "There is nothing that tells us that right now. All we know is that Darren Shelby was a friend with Hank and that he was most likely the person who was in the red Toyota pick-up that hit you. We don't have any motive for him." Sara nodded.

"Ok."

"I'll keep looking, and I'll update you if I find anything else."

"Alright, thanks."

Warrick left the room, taking the files with him. Sara sat back in her chair, trying to think about what could have encouraged Darren Shelby to go after her and Emily. Then a man she was hoping to never see came into her office.

"SARA!" Ecklie almost screamed at her.

Sara sighed, trying to be patient with him. It was exhausting to do so. It was a miracle for anyone to be able to stay around him, but to listen to him was something else. "What is it, Ecklie?" She asked him, trying to remain or at least sound calm.

"Did you talk to Emily? The girl from Hank's murder?"

Sara shook her head. "No, I haven't seen her since the accident. Why? Is she ok?"

Ecklie didn't bother to answer her question. "She won't talk to me. She won't give me any information I need, but says she will talk to you, and only you."

She sat up, ready to sprint if she could. She wanted to see the girl so bad, wanted to make sure she was alright, but held herself back, knowing if she made one wrong move, Ecklie would get her in trouble in no time at all. "Tell me what you need me to do."


	10. Chapter 10

"I have an interrogation room set up for you to talk to her. However, you better come out of that room with some good info from the girl."

Sara nodded. "I can't promise you anything except that I will try."

Ecklie sighed. "Good enough. Now come on, and don't waster my time."

She felt like socking him right then and there. At least it might knock some sense into him, she thought to herself. Ecklie led her down the hall, to the room in which Emily waited with a guard near the door. Ecklie held open the door for her.

"Thank you." Sara said, trying to remain polite as well as calm. Emily looked up at her. She had a cast on her arm, but other than that she looked much better. Sara sat down at the table in front of the girl. "Hi" she said to Emily.

Emily looked at her for a moment, before responding "Hi."

Sara sighed, wondering where to begin. "Do you know why you are here, Emily?" The young girl shook her head. "You must remember that murder you witnessed, right?" Slowly, the 9-year old nodded. "That's what I'm here to talk to you about. I was wondering if you could give me some information.

"What do you want to know?" Emily asked her, tucking her hair behind her ears.

"Whatever you can tell me." The girl did not respond. "Emily? What can you tell me?" Still, there was silence. "Emily, you know you can tell me anything." The girl still sat there, looking at the CSI with a blank face, yet something was hiding beneath it all, Sara could tell.

"I promised I wouldn't tell anyone. I can't tell you. I can't. He…he'll kill me."

Sara was overcome with concern. She knew that when a child said this, it was something very bad. "Emily, no one can kill you now. He won't hurt you. Please, tell me who he is, and what he told you not to say."

"It was…my dad." Emily began. "He told me to."

"He told you to what?"

"To kill him."

Sara stared at the girl in astonishment. Could this girl have killed Hank? "Go on" she urged, "Tell me what he wanted you to do."

"He told me to wait until he left with my mom, and then kill him. I asked him how, and he said I could use a knife. So I stabbed him"

"Did he tell you why he wanted you to kill Hank?" She shook her head.

"They did fight a lot though. I think he was like, one of my dad's customers. He did something that made him really, really mad."

Sara nodded. "Ok. Can you tell me anything else? How many times did you stab him? Where?"

"I stabbed him in the chest, in the back, in the stomach, and in the neck and head."

"Is that all you can tell me?" Emily nodded. "Ok. Thank you Emily."

"Sara, I don't want to go to jail. I didn't want my dad to kill me. Please, don't let them take me to jail."

"Emily, believe me, I will try my best to keep you out of jail. Don't worry. We're gonna find a way." Sara's heart fell though, shattering into pieces knowing that no matter how hard she tried, she wasn't going to be able to keep this girl outside of metal bars. She knew that the judge would say that she understood what she had done, and should've told an adult she trusted about the threat. Looking at the girl, these thoughts raced through her head, as she wanted to tell Emily so bad that her fate was most likely in jail, but she held herself back, knowing the child would burst into tears, helplessly, and cause Sara just as much pain as she felt from the hit-and-run. Then another awful thought came into her head-Ecklie. What would he do? He certainly wouldn't be too harsh on her would he? The idea sent a wave of worry through Sara, as she sat thinking about what to say or do next. Soon, she glanced at the mirror, that gave the opposite side the observation booth. In no time at all, Ecklie came in.

"Unfortunately, Emily" he began "Sara won't be able to do anything, because she is not working on this case." Conrad gave a slight glare at Sara, who sighed with pain of a broken heart. Sara didn't bother to look at Emily's horrified face, knowing it would only make things worse. "Thank you, Sara. Your work here is done. That is all I needed."

Sara got up, and said her last words to Emily. "Hang in there. If you ever want to talk, you can call me with this number" she said, giving her cell phone number to the girl. "Good-bye, Emily." With that, she headed out of the room, as she couldn't bare to see her face again. It would just be so heart wrenching, and that was the last thing Sara wanted to see. The worst part was that this was only the beginning of the shift, and she had already put out all of her emotion on the girl.


	11. Chapter 11

Sometimes she hated her job, sometimes she loved it. At the moment, she hated it. But that was only until Warrick came to her near the end of the shift, sun rising once again to start a new day. Sitting at her desk once more, he came to her and sat down. He had no files in his hands this time, but only a face that showed no emotion.

"What?" she asked, tiredly, not wanting to hear any more bad news.

"We have a reason for Darren Shelby to be in jail right now." Sara waited impatiently. "He was charged for attempted murder on you and Emily."

"Ok, but why did he attempt to murder us?" Sara asked, putting the meaning of the phrase 'Attempted Murder' to use.

"I was just getting to that." He told her "Hank was his best friend, right?" Sara nodded slowly, still slightly confused to where this was going. However, her CSI skills came back to work as her face gave Warrick the impression that her light bulb went on.

"He wanted to kill Emily for killing his own best friend" Sara said in almost a question. Warrick nodded to answer her. "Well, at least _that_ guy is in jail."

He looked at her a little puzzled. "I understand why you might want him in jail, what other guy are you talking about?"

Sara sighed. "Emily's father." One small tear slid quickly down her cheek, but she whipped it up just as soon as it had appeared.

"What about Emily's father?" Warrick asked, wishing he could comfort her in some way.

"She told me that the only reason she killed Hank was because her father would've killed her if she didn't." She sighed again. "It's not fair, Warrick." She told him.

"Not everything is." He agreed.

Sara shook her head. "Emily is going to jail because she was threatened by her father to kill someone. It just doesn't make sense."

"Sara, you know that she had other options than to go ahead with the murder."

"She was scared. She didn't see these options." She said, defending the child. Suddenly, Sara understood how some of the suspects felt in some cases. "I guess when you are in the middle of everything, you just want a way out. You want the easiest way out, but sometimes it's to hard for you to even think, so you just go ahead with the first thing that comes to mind. That's what she did. She is 9 years old. She wouldn't give up her life for someone else's. And she shouldn't have to."


End file.
